How Deal Was Made, Unmade, Then Saved

By

Patrick O'Connor and

Peter Nicholas

Updated Jan. 3, 2013 1:23 p.m. ET

The morning after, as so often happens, there were regrets.

By early Wednesday, partisans on the left and right had found plenty to grumble about in Congress's New Year's deal to avoid going off the fiscal cliff. But it is unlikely there would have been any deal at all to grumble about if not for a Sunday afternoon phone call from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other.